Tag: ecmo

Hennepin Healthcare recognized as part of an elite, international group of ECMO Centers of Excellence

Heart/lung bypass system used to care for critically ill COVID-19 patients

ECMO Logo-02 (003)Hennepin Healthcare’s Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program recently received the Award for Excellence in Life Support – Platinum Level, the highest designation level given by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO). This award recognizes programs worldwide that distinguish themselves by having exceptional personnel, procedures, and systems in place to support critically ill patients with ECMO while also advancing the exciting science in this area.

Hennepin Healthcare’s ECMO program was also recognized for its excellence in training, education, collaboration, and communication supporting ELSO guidelines that contribute to a healing environment for families, patients and staff.

“ECMO is used to support the heart and or the lungs of patients until their underlying problem has resolved,” explains Hennepin Healthcare’s ECMO Medical Director Matthew Prekker, MD, MPH. “In the past months it’s been an essential intervention for critically ill COVID-19 patients who meet therapy criteria. To receive this prestigious recognition in the midst of an incredibly busy season really means a lot to our team and the entire hospital, and is a testimony to everyone’s outstanding work.”

ECMO is a treatment in which heart and lung function can be supported temporarily – outside the body – using a machine that oxygenates blood, removes carbon dioxide, and pushes oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. It’s often called a “rescue therapy” as it is usually initiated for critically ill patients when all other methods of treatment have failed. Doctors at Hennepin Healthcare can deploy this system in minutes at the patient’s bedside.

“For example, when COVID-19 patients become so ill with pneumonia that we can’t safely support them with a ventilator any longer, we consider all our options to save their life, which includes ECMO support for select patients. Patients with COVID-19 may need to be supported with ECMO for weeks at a time, but there have been a number of cases this year where our patient would have almost certainly died without ECMO,” said Dr. Prekker.

About Hennepin Healthcare’s ECMO Program
Restarted in 2015, Hennepin Healthcare’s ECMO program was designated as a Silver Level Center of Excellence in 2017 and now in July 2020 it achieved Platinum Level, which is the highest designation given by ELSO. ECMO is an essential part of Hennepin Healthcare’s Level I Trauma Center, committed to saving the lives of critically ill and injured patients. For more information, go to www.hennepinhealthcare.org/ecmo.

 

 

ECMO provides life support when heart, lungs aren’t working

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HCMC’s ECMO program was recently recognized by ELSO

Oxygen is essential to life, and we can thank the heart and lungs for perfecting its delivery throughout our bodies. But what happens when conditions make these organs both unable to perform their job and not respond to standard life-saving measures in the Intensive Care Unit? That’s when ECMO — extracorporeal membrane oxygenation – can help. ECMO is another advanced treatment available at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) to help patients recover from critical illness and in some cases, injury.

“When other life support methods have not worked, ECMO can help sustain patients with acute respiratory or cardiac failure,” explains Dr. Matthew Prekker, pulmonary/critical care and emergency physician at HCMC. “It essentially bypasses the lungs and or the heart to provide oxygenated blood to the tissues via a pump and special membrane outside the body.”

The ECMO process can also be used to stabilize patients in cardiac arrest by returning the oxygenated blood directly into the arteries leading to the heart and brain.

“Near-drowning, chest trauma, smoke inhalation and even cardiac arrest patients may benefit from this evolving, life-saving intervention,” says Dr. Prekker.

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ECMO patients are monitored continuously 

Patients receiving ECMO life support are cared for in the Surgical ICU under the direction of cardiovascular surgeons and critical care physicians.

Patients are monitored continuously by specially trained ICU nurses who collaborate with certified perfusionists and respiratory therapists.

HCMC’s ECMO team cares for patients from hospitals throughout the region, and often accompanies patients during transport to ensure the seamless delivery of care.

“ECMO has received a lot of attention from prehospital and hospital clinicians looking for a novel way to rescue and support a patient when traditional things we do aren’t working, it is developing into a game changer in select patients.”

HCMC has been designated as on the Pathway to Excellence in Life Support by achieving the Silver Level for its Extracorporeal Life Support Program by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO). This recognizes its efforts to provide bedside cardio-respiratory support to critically-ill patients utilizing ECMO.

For more information about ECMO as an alternative strategy for life support for adult and pediatric patients, go to hcmc.org.

Hennepin County Medical Center is a nationally recognized Level I Adult Trauma Center and Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center with the largest emergency department in Minnesota. It is operated by Hennepin Healthcare System, Inc., a subsidiary corporation of Hennepin County. The comprehensive academic medical center and public teaching hospital and clinic system includes a 484-bed acute care hospital, primary care and specialty clinics located in Minneapolis and surrounding suburban communities, as well as home care and hospice services.